The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the production of yarn. In another aspect the invention relates to a method and apparatus for restraining a yarn wad.
Synthetic fibers are commonly produced by extruding molten polymer through a spinneret. In order to produce yarns which have properties approximating those of wool or other natural materials, it is common practice to subject the extrudate from the spinneret to a texturing process. This can be accomplished by a variety of procedures known in the art, such as stuffer-box crimping, false twisting, and fluid jet texturing. One particularly effective procedure involves passing the yarn to be textured and a high velocity fluid to a first passage, subsequently passing the yarn and the fluid to an enlarged passage wherein the yarn forms a yarn wad. The yarn wad is passed to a restraining zone in which the yarn wad is restrained and cooled. In the restraining zone individual stacked members, such as balls are used to exert a force on the yarn wad. The fluid escapes from the yarn through the voids between the stacked members and a textured yarn is removed from the restraining zone. Although this procedure produces a high quality textured yarn, a particularly troublesome problem involves loss of the stacked members from the restraining zone. Frequently, stacked members become entrained in the yarn wad and are carried away from the restraining zone. Also sudden disruptions in the texturing process cause the stacked members to be thrown from the restraining zone. In addition, operators occasionally knock stacked members from the restraining zone during string up and maintenance of the equipment. Further, recovering the stacked members from the floor and/or replacing them with new ones involves considerable expense, particularly where a number of such processing lines are used.
Although it would appear such a problem could be easily solved, this has not been the case. In order for the stacked members to function properly, they must be free to act upon the yarn wad, and in addition, the restraining zone containing the stacked members must be designed to allow the operator to easily string up and maintain the equipment. It has been very difficult to satisfy both of these conditions simultaneously. However, the present invention achieves such a result.
It is an object of the invention to restrain yarn.
Another object of the invention is to restrain and cool yarn textured using a fluid jet texturing process.
Another object of the invention is to eliminate the loss of stacked members from a restraining zone.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus useful for restraining yarn.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus useful to cool and restrain yarn textured with a fluid jet wherein the apparatus contains individual stacked members which are not removed from the apparatus by the operation thereof.
Other aspects, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon studying the drawings, specification, and the appended claims.